PRIVATISATION IN TURKEY

WHAT CAN BE PRIVATISED?

The followings are privatised according to the Privatisation Law.

• The State Economic Enterprises (SEEs)* , and their

o associated corporations,
o operations,
o operational units,
o assets,
o shares in their participations;

• Public shares in commercial organizations, which are 50 % or more, and the shares of these organizations in their participations;

• Public shares and shares that belong to the Treasury in participations of the State;

• Assets and the public shares in the participations, which are irrelevant to the designated main public services, belonging to

o administrations with general and annexed budgets and their revolving fund subordinates and
o the Public Economic Organizations;

• Commercial organizations of the Municipalities and Provincial Directorates and their shares in the participations;

• Operation rights on the assets and ‘goods and services’ production units of the public organizations with general and annexed budgets and their revolving-fund subordinates (i.e. operation rights for dams, lagoons, highways, hospitals, ports and other similar goods and services production units) (these rights can be privatised for at most 49 years)

• Operation rights for ‘goods and services’ production units of the following Public Economic Organizations (PEO)** , where appropriate,

o TCDD (General Directorate of Turkish State Railways)
o DHMI (General Directorate of State Airports)
o TEKEL (General Directorate of Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Salt and Alcohol Factories)
o PTT (General Directorate of Turkish Postal Services)
o TT (Turkish Telecommunications Inc.)


PHC is authorised to determine the strategic organizations. If the State shares in strategic organizations falls below 50%, for the purposes of preventing monopolization and of protecting national economic and security interests, PHC is authorized to

• determine the number of preference shares granting special management and approval rights in the management bodies of the organizations and the rights attached to those shares which the State shall enjoy;
• change the quantity of these shares and the rights attached there to; and
• remove such sectors and organizations determined to be strategic from the scope of this program.

According to the Privatisation Law, if more than 49% of the capital shares of the organizations listed below are decided to be privatised, preference shares must be established in them:

• Turkish Airlines (THY)
• Turkish Ziraat Bank
• Turkish Halk Bank
• TMO (Soil Products Office) Alcoholid Factory
• Turkish Petroleum (TPAO refineries).

In addition, the followings are deemed to be `concession` and any contracts relating to these activities (concession contracts) are to be in line with the provisions of the relevant laws:

• Monopolistic `goods and services production` activities of the organizations with general and annexed budgets and their revolving-fund subordinates,
• `Goods and services production` activities of the Public Economic Organizations, which are within the context of the relevant establishment laws.

* An SEE is a profit-seeking (economic) enterprise established by a Council of Ministers Decree pursuant to Law-Equivalent Decree No. 233. The Undersecretariat of Treasury owns all shares on behalf of the State. It is associated to a sector ministry and the relevant ministry forms all sector policies and audits its operations. An SEE has its own Board whose members are appointed by the sector minister and the State Minister of Economic Affairs. The framework of an SEE’s annual budget and investment program is prepared in collaboration of the undersecretariats of Treasury and State Planning Organization (This framework is called “Annual Investment and Financing Program”-AIFP). The Board has to make financial and operational decisions in line with the AIFP and the relevant regulations.

** A PEO is similar to an SEE in structural, financial and legal features. However, only difference is that a PEE produces monopolistic goods and services for the sake of public. Thus, these goods and services are considered to be concession.

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